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End the embargo! - guest commentary

Who are we Americans to be telling the Cubans that in order to lift the decade’s old embargo, Cuba will have to have ‘free elections’? Senator Bob Menendez Democrat, New Jersey, speaking to Today Show host Matt Lauer on June 5th, stated exactly that. If Cuba wants the right to freely trade with the rest of the world they must have free elections. Does Menendez mean ‘free’ like we have here in the United States?

I hope not because American elections are far from free; financially, politically, legally or socially. For example, when is the last time a candidate not from the Republican or Democratic parties won the presidency? When has a third party candidate even qualified for public funding of his campaign? Answer-never! This is a political monopoly. There is nothing ‘free’ in this system. Attempts to create third parties in this country are squashed by the Republican and Democratic parties who legislate rules against third party candidates and their ability to run an effective campaign.

When was the last time a non-millionaire won the presidency of the United States? What about at least a senate seat? Is it not dubious that we have never had a female leader unlike many other ‘free’ countries that have.

If we think our elections are so free and fair why do voters in strongly red or blue states frequently not go to the polls for presidential elections? This is because they know the state’s electoral votes will go a certain direction regardless of there vote. Why is voter turnout in this country the lowest in the industrialized and virtually entire world? If the election is ‘free’ why doesn’t everybody or at least a large majority vote? How is it that in a democratic and free election a candidate could win the popular vote and not win the election? In what other country on the planet is this possible?

Why are we the only nation on earth who doesn’t hold elections on Sunday when laborers and blue collar workers could more easily get to the polls? Why do incumbents win reelection of their seats more than 90% of the time if we have really free elections?

If we really had free elections do you think George Bush would be president if his last name were Jones? Would Hillary Clinton be the leading democratic contender for 2008 if she were married to a steelworker? Come on! Our whole system is rigged!! No one without name recognition links to tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, corporate America, corrupt lobbying ties and the ability to craft phony campaign promises could ever be elected president in this country. It is all a façade.

In a freely elected government how is it the president continues to conduct a murderous war having led to the death of thousands of Americans, tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, against the will of the vast majority of the people who elected democratic majorities to the house and senate for the purpose of ending the war. Who is acting like a ‘dictator’ here?

Now I ask you in which country are their really more ‘political prisoners’, Cuba or the United States?

The US process may not be perfect but it is free. Anyone can run for President. Anyone can try to be an astronaut. Anyone can try to become a millionaire. There are not guarantees but at least there are opportunities.

There is little or no opportunity in Cuba’s one party system to be President.

Also, what does this have to do with an argument for ending the Embargo?

Cuba has a fantastic opportunity to learn from the excess’s of it’s US neighbour whilst fostering a socially aware and free democratic society. It’s wishful thinking on my part, but Mr Castro still has time to leave his people a positve legacy, democracy and freedom doesn’t mean rampant greed and protectionism at whatever cost.

It clearly seems that Casto’s legacy is already written. He is too sick to be more than a figure head for the Cuban people. It really is up to a self-proclaimed moral society like the U.S. to engage Cuba and the Cuban people and show its true morality if we are to see changes any time soon. We have so many positives to offer and yet we offer only isolation and judgment towards and of Cuba. Wise men always say keep your friends close and your enemies closer. If the U.S. would allow open travel, economic and cultural exchange/trade with Cuba, things would shift much more quickly than anything Fidel is now able to do.

The young people of Cuba have no allegiance to Fidel and are really apolitical. We in the developed world can be a light for Cuba and her people rather than the heavy handed ogre which only keeps her isolated and poor.

An American President has not been legitamatley elected since Clinton beat Dole in 1996. The Supreme Court decided the 2000 election. In 2004 over 300,000 votes were mysteriously lost in Ohio, giving the election to Bush. If the Democrats don’t get their act together the Republicans will steal the election again in 2008.

I agree Curt. The truth is a very foreign concept to get at in the political world and part of my point is in many ways our system is just as corrupt as the Cuban system. How is it that we have the right to limit them or be telling them what to do when our own system is so faulty. I am also concerned about the Republicans stealing the election in 2008. Hopefully the full story about Ohio in 2004 will come out before then.